How To Get A Full Day's Work Done

I work at home, just me and my laptop in a corner of the guest room. It's great--no one looking over my shoulder, no deadlines, no office gossip to distract me. On the other hand, I have no one looking over my shoulder, no deadlines, and literally hundreds of things to distract me. So, when my husband asked me, post-surgery, to drive him to a one-day conference a couple of hours away, including two nights in a hotel, I jumped at the chance. I'd have an entire day to myself in a hotel room and would be able to put in a full day of writing without all the usual distractions at home. As a bonus, there was an independent book store nearby. I love bookstores, especially old ones that ooze atmosphere. We drove out, went to dinner, and basically had a very pleasant time. Then things started to go downhill. I sometimes suffer from insomnia and that night was a doozey. I slept two hours and that was it. To add insult to injury, at some point during the night, the air conditioning turned itself on. This wasn't a problem until morning, because the bed had a nice thick comforter and I was cozy and warm. I sensed that something was off, but in my bleary state, I couldn't put my finger on the problem. When my husband's alarm went off, it was cold. Really cold. He turned the thermostat up and showered and left. I don't know how long it took me to get up the courage to get out from under the comforter. I couldn't turn the air off, so I bumped the setting up to 90. I rushed through the shower and got dressed. The temperature in the room had dropped three degrees. I called the front desk and was told that maintenance arrived at 8:00 and she'd send someone over. A nice young man showed up. I explained the problem. He pushed some buttons and said, "It isn't working right." Yes, that was my guess too. He left to get his tools, which he seemed to have left in a distant city, but finally returned and in a mere hour and a half had the room pleasantly warm again. It was 11:00 by then and I did what I'd been waiting to do all morning. I got back in bed for a nap. That lasted a whole hour. I was feeling a little better, so I went to the bookstore. It was an old building and lovely inside. I browsed for almost two hours, the time-limit for parking, made my purchases and went back to the hotel. I still had two hours until my husband was due back, so I pretended I was doing some of the work I'd brought. When exhaustion had taken over my brain, I stopped pretending. How tired was I? I went to the bedside table to get the exciting, keep-me-up-half-the-night-reading book I'd brought. I picked up the travel alarm clock and went back to the chair. I sat staring at the clock in my hand for several long seconds, trying to understand what is was and why I was holding it. When I finally figured out that I'd picked it up instead of the book, I put it down, closed my eyes and gave up. I made a note to myself for the future that this was probably not the best way to get in a full day of writing.